Suspiciously Silent
by AquaTurquoise
Summary: Cedric grows very curious as to why Sofia isn't talking one day. (Hope everyone had a good Christmas! This is my post-Christmas story for you all since I'll be busy for the next few days. Enjoy!)


Suspiciously Silent

Summary: Cedric grows very curious as to why Sofia isn't talking one day.

Sofia sat up in her bed, yawning and stretching. She blinked her bleary eyes before looking around her room curiously. Realizing the sun wasn't even up yet and had apparently been replaced by a dark and heavy rainstorm, she sighed and slid from her bed. She figured she'd go ahead and get ready for the day anyway, as it appeared she wasn't going back to sleep.

Once clean and dressed in typical princess attire, the young girl sat at her vanity and ran a brush through her hair. After she finished, she placed the brush onto the table and walked over to her window seat, resting on the cushions and curling up with a blanket as she watched the rain pour down outside.

Although relatively powerful, the storm was still kind of quiet. It was making an impact as far as nature went, but it wasn't all that overbearing really. In reality, it was kind of…soothing.

Sofia felt her eyes starting to close as the steady pattern of the rain lulled her back into a peaceful sleep.

A few hours later, the princess awoke to find that the storm hadn't let up, but that didn't really bother her. She enjoyed it, as long as nothing dangerous (tornadoes, for example) accompanied it.

She stood from the window seat and gathered a blanket from the edge of her bed, draping it around her shoulders and arms as she walked from her room down the hallway. It was rather cold in the castle at the moment, so she decided this was the best way to stay warm.

After eating a muffin from the kitchen, she made her way to Cedric's tower. She figured she was still a good half hour early, but he probably wouldn't be too surprised to see her. After all, she was bringing _him_ a muffin also, so he really didn't have much of a fight to pick if he saw a pre-offered "peace offering."

Smiling to herself, Sofia reached up and knocked on the door, smiling as Cedric opened the door and stared at her.

"Sofia," he said with a slight yawn, covering his mouth with his hand. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting you so early…" He blinked when she just smiled and offered a muffin to him. He raised an eyebrow. "For me?"

She nodded happily as he took the muffin and pinched off a few bites before guiding her over to the table. She placed the blanket on the table as she settled in for a few hours.

"What would you like to work on today? I figured I'd let you decide since you actually arrived early." He chuckled softly.

The princess shrugged in uncertainty.

Unnerved by her silence, he frowned. "What's wrong? Are you sick?" Seeing her shake her head, he gave her a curious stare. "You haven't lost your voice? No?" He lifted one hand in question. "Then why aren't you speaking?"

She smiled as though she had a secret, making him all the more curious and bothered at the same time.

"Well, how are we supposed to work if you aren't going to speak to me?" He smirked. "Spells require _words_, you know." He considered that statement and shrugged slightly. "Right, well, _most_ spells require words. But seriously, won't you talk to me already?"

Sofia considered his request before shaking her head.

"Hmph… Adolescents…" He heard what seemed to be the start of a giggle before he pointed at her and grinned. "Ah-hah! I almost got you."

She shrugged with an innocent smile and grabbed her training wand before sitting down on her stool across from him.

After teaching her some new spells, which she wasn't fully able to complete as she wasn't speaking, Cedric sighed tiredly and placed his own wand aside. He lowered his head to his arms and closed his eyes briefly.

Sofia blinked at this movement before biting her lip in slight worry. Was he _seriously_ going to take a nap right now? Maybe _he_ wasn't feeling well. Maybe he was exhausted. She pondered these things before pushing herself onto her knees and reaching over, shaking Cedric lightly. "Mr. Cedric?" she asked worriedly, her voice cracking slightly due to its lack of usage today.

Cedric grinned as he sat up and laughed. "Ah-hah! I knew I could get you to talk."

She sighed in resignation and smiled. "That's not fair."

"No, my dear. What's not fair is my doing all the big work and your refusal to talk. What was the deal with that anyway?"

"It's for an experiment at school," she responded with a shrug. "We're supposed to test and record people and their reactions to nonverbal response. Since we're reviewing Princess Ariel's past with vocal loss, the fairies for some reason thought it would be a good idea to…put ourselves into her shoes, I guess."

"So you decided to use _me_ as a test subject. I see how it is." He smirked as she giggled. "Honestly, Princess Sofia, couldn't you have tested this idea out on Baileywick instead?"

"I tried," she informed him. "But unlike you, he immediately believed I was cursed or something. He called for doctors and all kinds of things before I finally cracked up laughing and told him it was a school project." She grinned. "I think he's too high strung. He worries too much."

"You _think_?" Shaking his head, Cedric laughed. "Well, now that you're talking to me again, so to speak, what's say we get back to our experiments?"

Sofia paused for a moment before smiling. "I have a better idea." She grabbed his hand and led him from the workshop down to the kitchen.

"What are we doing here?" he asked with a raised eyebrow as she handed him a mug.

"You'll see."

A few minutes later, each of them had a cup of hot cocoa made. Sofia led Cedric toward one of the large windows and sat down beside it with him. They sipped their cocoa as the storm continued outside.

"Not that I'm complaining, as I do enjoy a break, but why exactly are we watching the storm?" Cedric asked his apprentice.

She took a sip of her cocoa and smiled gently. "Because sometimes, you just need to be silent…and enjoy the rain."

The end

A/N: I know: random and relatively short. We recently had a heavy storm here, and I'll be honest: rain and thunder relax me like nothing else can. I sleep best during storms, I'm more productive during storms, and I just generally love them all around…as long as there are no lasting or damaging effects. Tornadoes…yeah, I can do without them. Lol. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope your Christmas was great. See you again soon! ~AquaTurquoise


End file.
